Crysis Series Is Only "Breaking Even", Says Crytek

GR writes: "Crysis and Crysis 2 may have both sold over three-million units each, but even that hasn't been enough in today's climate."

[ftwrthtx]

Crysis 2 is free for PS+ owners in Eu regions. It's probably the best 3D game on the market for those with a 3D TV and a PS3.

[dbjj12088]

Better than Uncharted 3 in 3D?

[Sev]

Tough call. The problem for me was I saw Crysis 2 in 3D on a 3DTV with the passive glasses. Active glasses are so much better, which is what I used for Uncharted.

[ftwrthtx]

Uncharted 3 was great in 3D, but seeing both on a 60" 3D plasma, I have to give a slight edge to Crysis 2. They both looked amazing though.

[HeavenlySnipes]

I would say yes. Uncharted's 3D wasn't that special, but maybe it's because I was playing with it in the underground parts with Sully. Crysis 2's 3D is really nice, especially the effects with the HUD.

Probably because its an FPS though. KZ3's is nice as well

[Sevir]

If you said between Crysis 2 and KZ3, then Id give it to Crysis 2... To date the best use of 3d goes to Motorstorm apacolypse with Mortal Kombat as a close second! I hear Sly 4 and PSABR has it as well so i'll try them.

[ftwrthtx]

Motostorm is waaaaay to fast for my eyes in 3D. KZ3 was a little rough around the edges, but I'm still giving Crysis 2 the nod (ever so slightly) over Uncharted 3. The depth of the screen made me want to climb into my TV on Crysis 2

[Obnoxious_Informer]

Hmmm, I've heard mixed things about Crysis 3's 3D. Gonna have to pick it up, even if just to give it a test spin; have seen it really cheap at retailers often.

Also, Mortal Kombat didn't look bad in 3D, but I thought it was such a HUGE missed opportunity. There's a ridiculous amount of great pop-out 3D gore/Fatality opportunities in Mortal Kombat, and they almost never took advantage of that. It looks really slick, but it could have easily been the type of game you have to show your friends, instead of having all the action take place behind that "glass window"

[lonesoul65]

Crysis is now just a way for them to show off the new tech in their engine that they sell. With crytech engine licensing...they make up the difference.

[ALLWRONG]

Free?

[ftwrthtx]

For PS+

[ALLWRONG]

But you still have to pay for PSN+ and if you stop you don't get to keep it. Free as long as long as you keep paying.

[NYC_Gamer]

EA collects most of the profit since they handle the publishing duties

[dbjj12088]

This is a key point. They develop Crysis on contract, so if they're hoping to make more money they should look for a new deal.

And frankly, they put so much work into the engine they should be trying to monetize that. That'll be impossible under the Electronic Arts banner because of Frostbite 2.

[vortis]

This will keep happening.

$60 + 3 million copies = not enough to break even. It's like WTF?

I remember during the PS2 era $50 + 1 million copies = developers jumping for joy.

This has been the gen of the publisher, where they've screwed over gamers and developers alike.

I hope Crytek gets out from under EA because it isn't really helping anyone but EA.

[NYC_Gamer]

It's sad that so many studios are being cheated out of profit by greedy publishers

[Forbidden_Darkness]

You have to also remember that it is far more expensive to develop games this generation than it was to last generation, which is a huge factor in why they hardly broke even.

[vortis]

@Forbidden_Darkness

But not all games HAVE to be expensive. Minecraft outsold Crysis 1 and Crysis 2 combined and that game was not more expensive to develop.

Journey was a low-budget game that sold more on the PS3 than Crysis 2 did on PS3 and Xbox 360 combined.

If they can't break even while spending millions of dollars in games people aren't buying then they're doing it wrong.

[pandehz]

Umm for every retail copy they sell they dont get a full $60 they barely get about half or so after all the cuts.

On a digital sale they get the full amount if its from their own site or own publisher site or digital distribution platform owned by the publisher like Origin.

Steam and other third party dd sites also give them a decent amount but not full, almost.

So the 3 million copies doesnt mean what u think it is.

[papashango]

word through the grapevine is that is that Valve takes somewhere from 5-12%. which is not very much and is why Indie devs are making a killing on Steam.

[jaklink]

That's something many avoid when talking about profits, when they do a deal like that, it's usually a 70/30 or 60/40 cut of profit, the majority going to the publisher. Crysis 2 must have been extremely expensive to develop since it was built concurrently with the new engine. I hope Crysis 3 does well, the Alpha test was fantastic, leaps and bounds superior to Crysis 2.

[vortis]

To be honest, Crysis 3 looks exactly like Crysis 2...

After watching an entire mission playthrough both games look and play about the same, but maybe it's just me.

[fermcr]

Here's an idea... why don't they release a new game (IP) instead of Crysis.

[Skate-AK]

They will. They are waiting for Next Gen Consoles.

[insertcoin]

It's difficult to imagine that 3 millions copies sold only has a developer like Crytek break even. It's also disheartening.

[seanpitt23]

Well crysis 3 looks just like crysis 2 which was very average gameplay wise graphics was superb but not enough replay value like today's bf3 and cods

[ritsuka666]

Crytek are liars bastards... I don't believe in one word of this guys.

[Tyre]

The PC Elite are spoiled/saturated sour lying bastards.

[pandehz]

What is the The PC Elite?

Sounds like an organisation or something

Btw dont say shit like that.

Im a pc gamer, there are no elites n crap on my platform. There are fake elites who think they are elite. Besides that there are mostly pc GAMERS.

Somehow I think you're just bashing coz you're sour.
Also at your second post. Not everyone pirates. Those who cant afford will pirate and those who can will buy. The games that are crap will not be bought or get pirated (kinda better, atleast gets ppl to play lmfao)

The good games will sell. Also release a demo for every game and ppl will know they are not getting ripped off like the past 6 yrs of horrid console porting. I have pre-ordered games since pre-ordering became a thing and have got ripped off for half of them for being such shoddy ports and well mostly crappy games.

It has nothing to do with the platform. If devs make good games ppl will buy. Simple as that

Look at Skyrim. Theres no online component and it sold a lot. Ubisoft games had online drm but ppl hated it but Diablo 3 sold well. Wont explain why and how for both but you should know if you're able to come up with such an academic analysis of pc gamers. Also online f2p games have ppl spending more than $100 per month when they could go $15 for sub based games. Ppl want to feel content when they hand over their money thats all. But in almost every situation its like developers/publishers are showing us gold but giving us silver instead.

So basically take your crap somewhere else or give some reasoning.

[grassyknoll]

Don't believe their lies.

[Adva]

Perhaps they should try to stream line their development process?

[JonnyBigBoss]

It's almost unbelievable, really.

[Tyre]

It is true. The PC Elite just pirated the games & EA took most of the profit. What a good publisher & PC crowd to sell to, uhm. No wonder they tried to sell on the consoles, but the PC crowd bashed the game publicly and console gamers got the wrong idea. So it never really took off. It's good to see people appreciating Crysis 2 on PS Plus, people realize what a good game it actually is. The game was expensive...Crytek had to sell a lot more copies to go beyond break even.

[CGI-Quality]

PC gamers don't want to just settle for a sub-par experience, and to some, that's what Crysis 2 was. I own it on PC, and with mods installed (MaLDO + Black Fire 2), I have to dig deep to find a better looking game. On consoles, however, it was a complete travesty. THEY should have been just as vocal.

[ShaunCameron]

Could it be that console gamers just didn't care that much about C2 to raise a fuss?

[aliengmr]

Because its totally impossible people thought it sucked. Had to be the "PC elite" convincing the console crowd the game sucked, which happens ALL the time.

[knifefight]

That is really sad to hear. Crysis had a great campaign.

[Sevir]

For one, Crysis 2 was made concurrently with developing CryEgine 3. you factor in EA being greedy with publishing and the manufactoring cost!, Selling 3 million in this ecomomy is great but breaking even is just horrendous for a title like that! factoring the royalties the platform holders get from the disc usage and hosting on there network, it was an expensive project with all the development.

hopefully Crytek has sorted out its development engine pipeline, and streamlined its processes that way development costs will be lower and profit margins come down so they can break even and exceed this.

[Perjoss]

I love Crytek and Crysis but I think its time for them to forget making games and focus on making engines.

[Zha1tan]

Then maybe they should make better games?

Crysis 2 had a decent campaign but it was far to restrictive and in terms of features was a annorexic version of Crysis 1.

[OneAboveAll]

The Crysis games have always felt like generic FPS games with good graphics.